The Importance of Safety and Security Measures at Sharm El Sheikh Airport and Their Impact on Travel Decisions after Restarting Aviation during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Thowayeb H Hassan,Amany E Salem

doi:10.3390/su13095216

Abstract

Travel decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic might be substantially influenced by destination-based attributes, in particular, health safety measures at airports. In the current study, we aimed to assess the effects of the perceived importance of safety measures at the Sharm El Sheikh airport on the intention of international passengers to revisit the destination, which might reflect their behavioral control for traveling to other tourism destinations. A total of 954 international travelers were asked to fill out a survey to reveal their travel risk perceptions, the importance of airport safety measures, and their future intentions to revisit the destination, and the data were integrated in an SEM model. The results showed that passengers with low-risk perceptions and highly perceived importance of logistic and sanitization procedures, as well as traveler- and staff-related safety measures, were more likely to exhibit greater intentions to revisit the city and lower intentions to cancel or change future travel plans to other touristic regions. Health safety at airports should be stressed in future strategic plans by governmental authorities and stakeholder activities to mitigate the psychological barriers of tourists.

Highlights

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused formidable and unprecedented challenges in multiple sectors worldwide since the first description of the outbreak as a pandemic on 12 March 2020 [1]
The implementation of innovative safety measures has no significant effect on the personal intentions to travel
The intention to travel to the destination in the future was inversely correlated with the willingness to cancel or change travel plans to other countries/places (β = −0.312, p = 0.04), which indicates that those who declared that they intented to revisit the destination would be less likely to cancel or change their future travel plans to other touristic places (Figure 3)

Summary

Introduction

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused formidable and unprecedented challenges in multiple sectors worldwide since the first description of the outbreak as a pandemic on 12 March 2020 [1]. The aviation sector has been no exception due to the inherent vulnerability of the global air transport to disruptive events. The commercial aviation sector has been influenced by four major outbreaks, including SARS, EBOLA, bird flu, and H1N5 influenza [6,7,8]. Such outbreaks lasted for relatively short time periods, were restricted to distinct regions, and they exhibited low rates of symptomatic infections. The COVID-19 outbreak has been associated with global flight restrictions, closed borders, and strict quarantine periods, Sustainability 2021, 13, 5216.

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